By Andrew Warshaw
March 11 – A Lebanese referee forced to flee for his life has decided to quit, the latest unsavoury episode to strike at the heart of the sport in the Middle Eastern country.
Pictures of Bachir Awasa were spread over the internet after he was attacked for dishing out a string of red and yellow cards during a domestic game in Beirut between al-Nahda and Al-Salam Zgharta.
In a rare incident of officials being assaulted, Al-Nahda players and staff chased and kicked him across the pitch before he was escorted to safety by military officials.
“From the reaction of the players and the staff I expected to be harmed in a grave way,” Awasa told a British tv station. “I expected it because of the way this team dealt with me and the history of this team over the past years, to be honest I did not expect to get out alive.”
Awasa is now calling on the Lebanese football association to guarantee more protection for referees after deciding to resign. “It’s my final decision in order to protect this game and to protect referees and I demand something really necessary, ” said Awasa, who has been a referee since 1999.
Lebanese football is already embroiled in a serious match-fixing scandal, with the Asian Football Confederation investigating after 24 players were sanctioned following allegations that international and regional games were rigged including life bans for defender Ramez Dayoub and forward Mahmoud El-Ali, both of whom play their club football abroad.
Dayoub, who insists he is innocent and will appeal, played for Lebanon in the current World Cup qualifying competition last June, a 3-0 defeat in South Korea, though no qualifiers are believed to have been fixed.
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